noise.
I was good at being quiet.
Children understand more than adults think they do.
I understood that our little household functioned because my mother kept everything balanced perfectly, and the best thing I could do was not make her life harder.
Every Saturday night, she came home exhausted.
And every Saturday night, before going to bed, she opened my bedroom door.
She never woke me.
She simply stood there and looked at me.
Sometimes I was awake pretending to sleep.
I would hear the door open and feel the
